The number of new asylum requests made in the Netherlands fell sharply to 43,900 last year, national statistics agency CBS said on Monday.

In 2023, 50,660 people requested asylum in the Netherlands, and in 2022, at the tail end of the coronavirus pandemic which shut down international travel, there were 48,600 requests.

The decline was particularly notable in the second half of the year, and new applications plunged 44% in the final quarter, the CBS said. The figures come from the IND immigration service and do not include appeals or resubmissions.

In total, just over 32,400 initial requests for asylum were made, a drop of 16% on 2023. A further 11,900 family members applied to join people already granted refugee status in the Netherlands, a rise of 17%.

The figures, which include December when Assad’s regime fell in Syria, show the number of new applications from Syrians fell 12% on 2023 to 11,500. Requests from Turkey, Eritrea, and Yemen were down, while there were more applications from Iraq.

The right-wing Dutch cabinet has pledged to introduce the “strictest refugee regime ever” but has not yet made any changes to the current system.

Immigration minister Marjolein Faber introduced three pieces of legislation aimed at deterring refugees from coming to the Netherlands in December, just before parliament broke up for the winter break.

They are currently being considered by the Council of State which advises on all new legislation.